The “He Gets Us” people don’t actually get Jesus
He Gets Us ran an ad during the Super Bowl about enemy love, set to foot washing. But without justice, that gesture is empty. Love without justice won’t overcome polarization.
He Gets Us (an organization formerly run by the Servant Foundation, and now run by Come Near) ran an ad during the Super Bowl that appeared—superficially at least—to be promoting Jesus’ message of loving everyone, across differences of power and status. I understand that there were some people who felt moved by the images in the ad, but I saw them as hollow, even hypocritical. To me, they employed the classic and dangerous bait-and-switch that more polite Evangelicals employ against the marginalized, in contrast to their Christian Nationalist counterparts. But it is still dangerous. The advertiser seems desperate to sell Jesus as the solution to our polarization, but its offerings are shallow because they do not address the injustice or the enmity between the groups in question. I wrote about a similar ad last year, as well.
The advertisers are wealthy Christians apparently exhorting the powerful to serve the powerless. The highly stylized images in the Superbowl ad showed a series of people of high status washing the feet of someone of lower status, or of someone they might consider an adversary or “other.” A cop is shown washing the feet of a Black man; a preppy teenager washes the feet of someone coded as punk; a white Westerner washes the feet of an indigenous individual; a white woman washes the feet of a younger woman at a reproductive health clinic; an oil miner washes the feet of an indigenous-coded climate activist; another white woman washes the feet of an immigrant getting off a bus, while another washes the feet of a Muslim woman. Finally, a white pastor washes the feet of someone coded queer.
The Servant Foundation is a conservative, fundamentalist organization. (Brynn Tanehill, on Twitter, has the full scoop.) The group that currently manages it has links to LGBT-hate groups, as well. That alone should prevent us from becoming sentimental about those images. Obviously, for some right-wingers, the advertisers’ brand of polite bigotry isn’t hard-hitting enough. For progressives, the sheer cost of the ad drew ire. But my criticism comes from a different, yet familiar place for me, as someone who has perpretrated and been a victim to baiting-and-switching.
But as polite as the ads try to be, let us not mistake them for affirming or just. There’s nothing wrong with saying that Jesus doesn’t teach hatred, and that Jesus loves everyone, and “gets” everyone. That’s a true and hopeful message. But the ads gloss over the difficult part: how do the humbled and oppressed get justice?
A friend on Twitter posted that he thought an ad telling people that Jesus loves them is good, regardless of the source. While I’m sympathetic with that opinion, I think we all need to be vigilant enough to look deeper when it comes to advertising. What I see is that the solution to the injustices that we face as a society were glossed over with images of unlikely people washing each other’s feet. Can you trust the messenger?
Simply put: the relationships represented here cannot be “healed” by footwashing alone. They need social and political transformation. The valleys need to be filled, the mountains lowered. Telling the church all it needs to do is wash the feet of its enemies before they enter their buildings and become converted is not a message of justice. I would call it the cheapest form of evangelism.
It’s not enough for the cop to wash a Black man’s feet—the entire justice system needs to be uprooted and transformed. It’s not enough for a settler to watch the feet of a person they displaced and colonized—there needs to be land justice that follows. The oil miner can’t just wash the feet of a protester—we need another way to consume and produce energy altogether. A woman who needs reproductive care doesn’t need her feet washed—she needs legal rights and dignity. Washing the feet of immigrants is a kind gesture, but an empty one, if it’s not accompanied by serious measures. Queer people don’t need Christian to wash their feet, they need Christians to fight on their side in a heteronormative world.
To understand more fully, let’s look, briefly, at how John recounts the washing of feet at the Last Supper:
He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” (John 13:6-9)
The revolutionary nature of Jesus’ washing the feet of his disciples is that it inverts the power dynamic and puts Jesus in the position of a servant. Peter is so moved by Jesus’ selflessness that he insists his Lord wash his whole body. Something radically transformative is happening in this moment. Jesus is divesting himself of authority to occupy a place of servitude, to enlighten Peter. This is entirely lost in the advertisement.
For Anabaptists, foot washing is a tradition we follow to emulate our Messiah. but outside of its cultural context, it loses its revolutionary quality. And paired with an ad funded by fundamentalists, it becomes a weapon against the oppressed, in fact.
As a queer, brown man, I found myself cringing at the ad. In many cases, I am in the position of the one getting their feet washed, but it felt condescending. You can’t oppress me and then perform a ritual act of service. It’s self-serving. To emulate Jesus’ footwashing, one has to surrender power. But that image is woefully lost in the Super Bowl ad.
Jesus washed his disciples' feet as an expression of self-emptying and the redistribution of power. It was never an expression of tolerance across all political differences, but in fact, was an act of generosity in a world where servants were oppressed. Jesus occupied the position of the servant to elevate it that position and that person. This ad merely tells us that we should be kind to the people we oppress so that they can be converted to Christianity. I don’t think this ad gets Jesus, at all.
Thanks for helping me understand the Servant Project ad. I saw the ad and it bothered me a little bit but I wasn't sure why. Washing feet is a good thing, but as I think you said, giving up power is more difficult than just washing feet.
This is great, Jonny.
I think the images were pretty manipulative, and, as you mentioned, reinforced rather than flattened the power dynamics. And I think because foot-washing is kind out of context for us, the images do more to quell the consciences of those who stay inactive in justice spaces rather than encouraging them into action.